By Elisabeth Watson ’26
While many University of Dayton students were spending their summer at the beach or relaxing with family, one student dedicated her time to uplifting homeless youth in the Dayton community.
Alexia Benton, a senior pre-medicine major from Columbus, Ohio, interned at Daybreak Dayton, a youth social services organization, through the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community’s Health Engagement Fellows program. The program connects students with health-focused nonprofits around the Dayton area, allowing them to get hands-on experience and learn outside the classroom.
She first discovered this program in her first-year interdisciplinary College of Arts and Sciences course when Fitz Center leaders shared their initiatives with her class. This experiential learning opportunity piqued her interest, which led to her pursuing a fellowship with the program.
“I decided to apply to the program because it was not only a way for me to prepare myself for a future career in medicine but it also offered me the opportunity to connect on a deeper level with the Dayton community,” Benton said. “The program’s focus on service and health engagement aligned with my values and I knew it would allow me to see a different perspective on health, which would not only push me to grow on the academic level but also on a personal level.”
Before the internship Benton wasn't familiar with the complexity of youth homelessness or the types of resources that were available to them. All of this changed as she began her time at Daybreak.
“My assumptions were that homelessness was tied to financial hardship, but I learned quickly that it is way deeper than that,” Benton said. “One could experience homelessness due to family conflict, mental health and systematic barriers.”
At Daybreak, she worked alongside fellow UD student Clarissa Breard on projects or activities for the clients to participate in to support their creative side and personal needs. She worked to develop her professional communication skills and how to approach clients’ situations without judgement.
“I spent my time engaging directly with clients; talking, building trust or playing games like UNO, and helping facilitate skill-building activities led by staff, such as coping or budgeting workshops,” Benton said.
When Benton began her summer placement in May she didn't feel like she had many connections there. As summer progressed she gained trust and built relationships with her clients.
“What has impacted me the most is realizing that I’ve been able to earn the trust of individuals who have been through so much, many of whom are my age,” she said. “It has shown me that simply showing up and taking the time to ask how someone is can truly matter.”
Through her classes at UD, Benton learned about different health disparities and social factors that can shape people's lives. By participating in experiential learning through the Fitz Center she was able to apply more of what she learned at the University to her work at Daybreak Dayton and in the greater community.
“The experience of working at Daybreak has allowed me to see how concepts of the social determinants of health play out in real life,” Benton said.
The Health Engagement Fellows, one of many Fitz Center for Leadership in Community programs, is founded on the belief that students learn best when they are immersed in the realities of the communities they aim to serve by encouraging undergraduate students to examine health not only as a clinical issue, but as a socioeconomic one. This approach to leadership is critical for reimagining the future of health care, according to Moses Mbeseha, the Fitz Center’s director of Health Opportunity Programs.
“Fellows aren’t just future clinicians or public health professionals — they're systems thinkers, advocates and collaborators who understand that health equity requires courage, partnership and sustained engagement,” Mbeseha said. “By bridging academic learning with lived experience, programs like HEF ensure that tomorrow’s leaders are equipped not only with knowledge, but with the moral imagination and community trust necessary to create effective, lasting change.”
Through programs like the Health Engagement Fellowship, UD students like Benton and Breard are able to work together in ways that both benefit the community as well as themselves.
“The University fosters students to see themselves as part of something bigger than themselves,” Benton said. “Working at Daybreak has given me the opportunity to live that out by supporting the youth who are often overlooked.”